Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
by bobbingformangos
Summary: Swan Queen Frozen AU: Based off of the song "Do You Want to Build A Snowman". Our two lovely women grow up together while one of them has a dangerous secret she must keep so that she can protect the other princess.


**Title: Do You Want to Build a Snowman?**

**Author: Avery; thequeensfavor tumblr**

**Summary: Frozen Swan Queen AU. Based off of the song "Do You Want to Build A Snowman". It can be found on youtube, spotify, or under the "good music" tag on my personal blog, bobbingformangos.**

**Notes: I may or may not continue this, depending on the response. It could end up being a long multichapter fic, a series of ficlets, or just this one part. What would you like to see? **

**Words: ~ 2270**

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"Hey Regina," Emma said as she jumped into the other girl's bed with a giggle escaping her pale lips. The young princess kicked at her long, blue nightshift as she collapsed on her knees next to the other girl. "Are you awake?"

The dark haired princess groaned in her sleep and tried to shrug the toddler off before pulling up her covers. Emma let out another childish giggle before shaking Regina's shoulders with small, slender hands. She gave an overdramatic whisper, "Come on, Regina, the sky is awake with bright lights and I want to play!"

The older girl groaned once more, opening an eye to peek over the edge of the covers at the little girl with the unruly blonde curls. She frowned at Emma and furrowed her eyebrows. "Emma, go play by yourself," Regina said, not wanting to indulge the young princess.

The five year old grinned happily, leaning down near the older girl's face. She whispered with a mischievous tone, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Regina's head perked up, eyes glazing over with the same playful twinkle that the blonde child had in her own eyes.

It didn't take any time for the children to make their way down to the empty, dark great hall. It took even less time for the magical, frozen playground to be created with the sound of happy giggles from a blonde little girl as she dove into piles of snow as Regina happily went about indulging the young girl.

Some would say it was a curse, such power, but the royal family had never made the young girl feel like it was a burden. _She was a special girl_, her adoptive mother would whisper to her at night before kissing her forehead. And all Regina wanted to do, right now, was use her special gift to make the young blonde happy.

"I'm Henry," the dark haired girl said in a deep voice as she moved the fake arms of their snowman around causing Emma to bring her hands to her round cheeks in laughter. The musical sound of Emma's laughter caused Regina to continue.

It was easy for the little girls to get lost in Regina's magic. The entire Great Hall was covered with hills of snow, ice sickles hanging from the ceiling, and a lopsided snowman in the center.

Running barefoot, Emma climbed up a hill. The snow clinging to her blue night shift as she knelt down to craft a snowball in her small hands before tossing it at the older girl. Regina laughed, dodging the snowball before attempting to create one in her own hands and tossing it at the little girl.

The thing about Regina's magic was that the nine year old couldn't completely control it. She had no one to teach her, her adoptive parents only able to offer advice on possible ways that she could control the ice. Her magic often came out too weak or too strong.

And as the snowball formed in the air, it seemed to have developed a mind of it's own, icing over before it hit the blonde in the head causing the little girl's body to fly back off the hill and into the ice below.

Regina, long black hair falling out of her braid, came rushing to the little girl and scooped her up in her arms before screaming for their parents, fear rushing in her heart.

SQSQSQSQ

Her Royal Highness, Crowned Princess Regina Cordelia of the southern Kingdom, Anaheim, was seventeen months when the White Kingdom invaded their walls. Her father, already dead at her mother's hands, pleaded many months ago for his daughter's pardon and safety in a letter against his abusive wife. It was his letter, sent all those months ago, that told of the hidden cavern of Queen Cora's heart.

It was a heroic accomplishment and the people of Anaheim were free of a heartless Queen who wanted nothing more than to groom her infant daughter into a soul that was darker than her own.

It was the moment that Anaheim was taken over by the White Kingdom that the Queen and King announced the adoption of the infant princess as their own.

Snow White had wanted a child so desperately that she took the small, dark haired and olive toned little girl as her own.

The first night the small child slept in the nursery, her powers of ice were discovered. Though, in the beginning she could only make snowflakes or small ice patterns across wooden surfaces. Over the years, as the young princess grew, her powers developed.

It was a few years later, months after Regina's forth name day that Princess Emma was born of the royal family. When the small princess was born, Regina climbed up into bed with Snow to peak at the small newborn. She kissed a promise of protection and happiness upon Emma's downy blonde hair.

When Emma's parents ran into the Great Hall after hearing their older daughter's cries. They knew that they must do something quick to save the little girl. It was then that they rushed through the woods, Regina leaving a trail of ice in their wake, to save young Emma.

"All magic comes at a price, your Majesties," the imp said as he danced around the royal family in the darkness of the enchanted forest. It would seem that he was the only one who would be able to save the tiny child.

And he had.

At the cost of the little girl's memories of Regina's magic.

And just like that, Emma's warmth slowly slid from Regina making room for the icy magic to start to freeze over her heart.

SQSQSQSQ

"Regina?" Emma asked against the door, her voice playful and happy.

She knocked five times on the door waiting patiently as she played with her yellow dress. Her parents had moved her out of the room she had shared the first five years of her childhood with the older girl months ago. It saddened the small child that she barely saw Regina anymore.

Her parents told Emma that Regina needed her own lessons now. Emma quickly suggested that she wouldn't be loud during their shared lessons anymore.

Her parents told the little girl that Regina was growing up and needed her own space. Emma rebutted that she was a big girl now and wanted to share her space.

Her parents quickly came to a loss at answers to give to the young blonde princess as to why the nine year old had pulled away.

They couldn't explain to the innocent little girl what had been forgotten that night so many years ago.

They couldn't explain to her why they had shut the doors, closed off the windows, and locked the gates.

They couldn't explain that they wanted to keep Regina safe from herself while also needing to keep Emma safe from Regina.

But mostly, they couldn't explain the guilt the older child still carried at the thought that she had hurt the small princess.

"Do you want to go build a snowman?" Emma had tried to use her best persuasive voice before quickly adding, "Come on! Let's go and play!"

She pressed her ear against the large, ornate door to try to hear the dark haired girl moving around only to have silence returned to her.

Frowning, she bit her lip before trying again. She pouted, stomping her foot in frustration, as she said through the door, "I never see you anymore. Come on, come out the door. It's like you went away, Regina!"

The princess paused, playing with the skirts of her yellow dress.

She sighed.

"We used to be best buddies and now we're not and I wish you would tell me why," Emma sadly said, voice slowly dropping to a whisper, lip trembling.

The five year old not able to understand how she was so close to Regina and then the older girl not wanting anything to do with her.

She was starting to feel lonely without the older girl.

Her father tried to keep her company, to indulge her while her mother spent most of her time with Regina during her lessons.

She even got a new nursemaid to keep her company.

But it wasn't Regina.

She tried once more.

She put her mouth to the lock in the door and tried to be silly. She asked the one question that she knew would perk Regina's attention. "Do you want to build a snowman?"

The answer was quick.

"Go away, Emma." Regina yelled through the door, impatient.

Emma's shoulders fell as she lowered her chin to her chest and replied, "Okay, bye."

SQSQSQSQ

"Hey Regina, do you want to build a snowman?" Emma asked through the large door to her old bedroom that she had once shared with the older girl. She quickly added, "or ride our bikes around the hall?"

Four years has passed, Emma was now nine.

Regina had successfully distanced herself from Emma but the little girl never gave up hope. Every morning she would come to Regina's door to try to coax the girl out of her room, not satisfied with only seeing the older Princess once or twice a week at dinner with their parents.

Her mother explained that Regina now needed special tutoring if she would ever become Queen, but the nine year old couldn't understand why that would mean that they couldn't play together anymore.

Emma, with her long curls framing her pale face and rosy cheeks, stomped her feet. "I think some company is overdue, Regina," she grumbled into the wooden door. "I've started talking to the pictures in the parlor and it's really lonely in all these empty rooms just watching the hours tick away."

Sometimes the little girl would be lucky, hearing Regina's voice to wish her away.

And sometimes, like today, she would be left with a chilly silence.

Their parents died at sea in a great storm.

Regina had begged them not to go.

But they went and only blue bodies returned to be buried in the royal cemetery. Regina watched from the pulled back curtains in her bedroom as the holy man said last words for the royal couple. She saw the unmistaken curls tucked underneath a black hat that she knew was Emma's.

Her heart ached for the young girl. She wanted to go down, to pull the fifteen-year-old girl into her arms and take away all of her hurt. Regina remembered her promise, whispered so many years into the hair of a newborn, and she hated herself for breaking the promise.

But the young woman knew that it was better this way – that she was protecting Emma this way.

It was a few weeks after their parents had died that Emma came to her door. The young princess started coming less and less over the years. Everyday turned into once a week and once a week turned into every couple weeks.

Emma learned to be satisfied with seeing the now regal young woman at dinners and in the parlor with their parents.

But with no parents, there was no excuse for the dark haired princess to leave her room.

Five knocks on the wooden door, just like every time Emma had visited before.

"Regina?" her voice was unsteady, low, and not the usual rambunctious vibrancy that usually filled Emma's voice.

"Please," Emma begged as she turned her body and pressed her back into the door. The black skirts of her dress sweeping across the floor as she tilted her head back and slide down the door. "Please, I know that you're in there. People are asking where you have been."

Emma began to play with her fingers, her chest squeezing with unleashed emotion and want for the older girl. "They are telling me to "have courage". I'm trying too, Regina."

She paused, sighing.

"I'm right out here for you," Emma said, turning her head so that her cheek would press into the cold surface of the door. She frowned as her eyes found a covered window. She often wondered what it would look like with the sun streaming through the windows.

Emma missed the sun.

The blonde often wondered, though, if it was the sun outside that she missed the most or the brightness that Regina had once offered her.

"I'm right out here for you, Regina," Emma began softly, holding her voice strong. "Please just let me in. We only have each other; it's just me and you"

It was starting to hit the young princess.

Her parents were gone.

They were dead.

She would never see them again.

"What are we going to do?" the young princess said, voice falling into a whimper as she tried to contain the sob that was trying to break through her chest.

And once again, Emma tried the only thing that she thought would work.

It was suppose to come out playful, like she had said it in the past, but this time it only came out as a whispered sob.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

SQSQSQSQ

Stand alone or multi chapter?


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